Family Tree May Miss Breast Cancer Gene

Jun 20, 10:40 PM

Current Headlines: A U.S. study says doctors may be underestimating a woman's breast cancer risk if there are few women on her father's side of the family.

Doctors generally look at family history to determine if a woman might carry the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene mutations that would predispose her to the disease, HealthDay said Wednesday.

The study, published in the June 20 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, said family history data isn't always available to women.

Dr. Jeffrey Weitzel, lead researcher and director of the department of clinical cancer genetics at City of Hope Comprehensive Cancer Center in Duarte, Calif., said insurance companies need to broaden the coverage for BRCA testing.

Half of all heredity for breast cancer comes from dad, he said. Most clinicians don't realize that BRCA can be inherited through dad.